Dear webmasters
Please consider these 6 improvement suggestions which would considerably
reduce the burden on helpers, considerably improve the efficiency of
[email protected], and remove or reduce some very disconcerting
problems for especially helpless newbies:
1) list FAQ sent at least once a week and after subscription or first
post by unsubscribed members
2) better introductory text on relevant webpages explaining that mail
sent to [email protected] goes to a mailing list and not a
"personal", official OOo helpdesk address and therefore produces many
answers, not just one
3) automatic explanatory line about non-subscribed status at beginning
of relevant posts, including request that *only* the original answerer
send a copy to the questioner
4) automatic question number instead of the senseless and spam-like
"moderated" as the subject of posts by unsubscribed senders, e.g.
"OpenOffice.org question 12345"
5) a webpage-only submission system for questions by unsubscribed senders
6) an automatic, separate *short* email in *plain English* without all
the list command and other complicated information explaining to
unsubscribed senders that they will not receive any answers unless list
members know they should send them copies and remember to do so. This
will encourage many to subscribe and will make things easier for everybody.
PS:
Here is a summary of the reasons for the above (copied from a posting
without rewriting), in case you want to and have time to read them:
As i explained, it can be quite disconcerting, especially for newbies,
to receive multiple forwarded copies of the same answer. Senders are
often expecting an answer from an official OOo address, not from
complete strangers with the strange spam-like subject "moderated". I
would hope that not all list members clog up the list with copies to the
list of copies resent to the senders, so we don't even know how many
additional copies and new answers the senders receive that only go
directly to them.
Also, it is evident that at least some of the unsubscribed senders are
unaware that they are not subscribed and even unaware that they are
sending mail to a mailing list. This means that the layout and content
of the webpage they use to discover this list is badly designed.
I also pointed out that it would be easy to automatically add more than
just the (incomprehensible) subject header "moderated" to make it clear
to both the sender and the list members that the sender is not
subscribed and that s/he only gets answers if copies of these are sent
by (preferably only the original!) answerer.
And more detail:
The current system does not work well because the senders apparently do
not receive a separate email with only the warning in simple English
that they will not receive any answers unless list members know they
should and remember to send them copies. If senders do get such a
warning, it is apparently buried in many lines of info about list
commands that completely overtax most normal users.
It also does not work well because there is no warning at the top of
messages from unsubscribed senders saying that the sender will not
receive the reply unless the personal address is copied and pasted. The
subject header "[moderated]" is not clear enough of an indication. Many
list members, not only new ones, don't add the sender's address to
replies; it's unclear whether they just forget it or don't know that
they should. As a result, several other list members often resend copies
of answers posted only to the list. These multiple forwarded messages
can be very annoying and even frightening for newbies.
The current system also does not work well because it doesn't force
unsubscribed senders to place a personal subject in the header, which
would be easy with a webpage submission system. As a result,
unsubscribed senders get emails with the senseless heading "moderated"
and/or with several different headings from complete strangers. And even
if they then subscribe, newbies are confronted with the extremely
confusing situation of having to find relevant answers to their question
in the mailing list messages or archive among several simultaneous
different threads with the senseless heading "moderated" and possibly
several other headings invented by different helpers.
It would be easy to automatically assign a unique heading e.g.
"OpenOffice.org question 12345" to each unsubscribed sender's query so
that answers are at least easy to find for the senders, even if this
still wastes the time of dozens or hundreds of helpers reading queries
irrelevant for them i.e. that they don't want to or can't answer.
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